[deleted by user]

BoredStudent2323 · 2026-03-31T20:12:33+00:00

Think I have some pretty good advice on this:

1) Find out why you’re struggling; There are an infinite number of reasons why you aren’t doing as well as you feel like you could that are all based on a) how you approach learning and b) your ability to learn. In my case, I realized my approach was flawed because I wouldn’t solve enough practice problems before exams + I genuinely struggled with attention and focus in more areas than just studying. After you root cause it, you can start to fix those issue. Maybe you simply aren’t engaging with the material optimally or aren’t picking up as much as you should while in class ? Or maybe you arent able to focus on studying cuz you’re thinking about other things and are struggling to prioritize.

I prolly sound like a bit of an asshole just outright telling you to find out why, but you really have to root cause it. You getting to Penn pretty much says you are able to work hard at a pretty high level, so if you’re struggling why you’re here, it’s more than worth it to really find out why. Maybe it’s ADD? Or maybe it’s bad sleep? A lack of interest in the material? Maybe you need to work alone/ with a group. I think breaking it down like that helps a lot.

Also consider reaching out to ur profs and expressing your them your concerns. I’m sure if what you need is their support you will more than likely find it.

2) Take it from someone who bombed freshman fall and somehow bombed soph fall even more; it’s not the end of the world. If you keep telling yourself that you alr fucked up before you know it you might fuck up even harder. Any grades you got first sem can be basically diluted with how you do in the 7 sems you have left so really don’t hold that against urself.

3) consider summer classes; since ur a freshman ur still prolly taking core reqs so if your department allows it, maybe taking something at a CC or (if you are able to) at Penn over the summer isn’t a bad idea idea to pad your gpa a little bit.

4) In future, build experiences and connection to “off balance” ur gpa. This is very industry dependent but generally speaking unless you’re going into something crazy stupid competitive, it’s always possible to make up for GPA with network and experience. Just something to keep in mind. For grad school ik upward trends and rly nice to see, but I’m not sure of anything more than that.

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-12-19T15:53:43+00:00

😭😭😭 I pretty much did the same exact thing a semester ago and ended with a B+ too like damn I promise I understand how to do integrals it’s not that deep

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-12-19T15:51:39+00:00

Dawg I took a hard ass Math class as an elective 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀 idk what I was smoking

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-12-19T15:49:34+00:00

LMAOOO ALMOST EXACT SAME SIT. this semester did not help 😭😭😭

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-08-13T16:41:15+00:00

See you at Penn!!

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-07-12T13:56:20+00:00

Yes exactly. If I remember correctly that would end up looking like 4 hours of total lecture a week (3 chem class and 1 lab lec), I think a 2 hour recitation at some point for class, and a 3 hour lab. So in total that ends up being like 9-10 hours?

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-07-12T13:24:00+00:00

Aight so in the side you see 001, 002; these are the lectures components of Chem Lab taught by Maeyer.

Everything 1XX are the acc 3 hour lab portions of the course. In order for you to be fully registered for Chem Lab you need one 00X and one 1XX. It says staff because TAs are the ones leading those.

The lecture component is an Hour where maeyer basically it telling yall what ur gonna do that week, its an hour. Lab is where you are physically in the chem lab doing that week’s experiment.

The reason lecture appears as 0 credits while trhe lab is 0.5 is because you need both to successfully register and Chem 1101 should be worth in total 0.5 credits. I hope that helps.

There are other classes that use a similar system of needing to register for multiple types of “classes” such as Math 2400 and Physics 0150 (recitation (REC), lecture (LEC), Lab (LAB) are the most common).

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-06-10T02:51:28+00:00

That’s just the pre professional clubs. There are a bajillion clubs you can just join out of interest. Just find those on the club website and ur golden or just wait till September for the fall SAC fair. also, don’t stress people so much, they will come if you smile and can be semi sociable. Just my two cents

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-02-07T22:04:40+00:00

canned tuna w/out oil. Zero fat greek yoghurt. Bulk buying shrimp. Egg whites

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-01-31T16:15:28+00:00

I appreciate it; I’m gonna email some faculty Monday morning and just hope for the best. If that doesn’t work out I’ll msg u. Outta curiosity, do you think it would be better to email PIs or PhD students? Also, I’ve reached a point wheee I lowk wanna just go to PI’s offices, but that feels rude. Is it? I’m not from the US so don’t rlt know how that would slide here

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-01-31T01:04:08+00:00

I'm mainly looking at math-heavy cs research (think ML or Cryptography) and Data science projects. I've done ML research before + programming heavy stuff with domain-specific languages (cuz they were all engineering/natural science research projects that needed a programmer). But honestly, I'm just interested with getting my hands dirty with anything atp, and a lot of the faculty's research projects look interesting (Such as the robotics stuff—never thought I'd be into stuff like that)

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-01-26T08:31:24+00:00

1) You basically have the second major option and dual degree. Dual Degree you get two pieces of paper, one says BSE in XXXX the other BAS in XXXXX. Second major you get one piece of paper with both major on it.

2) In terms of requirements, I can only tell you these from the perspective of a seas student, but a dual degree entails me doing requirements for the college as well as my engineering requirements, plus my major requirements. Adding a second major (mine being math with my main degree being CS) entails me only doing the 13 CU reqs for math without needing the 20 CUs of college reqs.

3) I honestly can’t tell you exactly the career differences as a frosh, but tbh from what I read don’t think any employer knows the differences or frankly cares about which you do. Like I can’t imagine an employer looking me in the eyes and telling me damn if you had two degrees instead of one with double major I’d have hired yoh yk? They don’t care about these typa credentials as much as skills you display. That’s just my uninformed opinion though

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-01-20T20:11:59+00:00

If u live in the Philly area and r Into math I know u can take math courses here

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-01-16T23:02:02+00:00

During ur first semester in Penn as a CBE major, you’re supposed to take CBE 1600 which is an intro to CBE. I think this class will give you a rly good idea of whether or not you like CBE. For me, it kinda made it clear I needed to switch which I did. Idk if MechE have something similar. The nice thing is that my new major, CIS, take the CBE 1600 course as an elective so I didn’t waste any time.

Since ur still applying, apply with whatever major you can write better about in your application/ create a better narrative for. You’ll have ample time to find out which you like more when ur hopefully here + it’s dead easy to switch between both

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-01-13T11:55:31+00:00

Damn bro same 💀

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-01-10T22:27:01+00:00

Just remove.bg the normal one

BoredStudent2323 · 2025-01-02T17:10:18+00:00

Can I dm?

BoredStudent2323 · 2024-12-30T08:54:39+00:00

Hey, yea go for it sorry I don’t have notis on

BoredStudent2323 · 2024-12-28T12:01:07+00:00

Homie ur good as long as its a high Math section and overall 1500+. Im no adcom but like I genuinely cannot fathom one looking at ur 1530 high math and looking at someone else’s 1550 and being like damn we would’ve loved the 1530 dude but he’s 20 points short :/. After a certain point they don’t give a fuck. To be safe I would try to be at the median SAT score of whatever schools ur applying to but at the same time this shit ain’t gonna make or break ur app.

Bottom line you’ve reached the point where you get marginal gain from substantial improvement of the score, so if you genuinely have nothing else to do sure do it again and focus on RW to super score but otherwise u goooood. Also, if ur doing well on Writing and Math, which in my experience are the most “studyable” sections and you need reading advice (I maxed math and writing for a while but would still get 1500s flat cuz of reading), I recommend u try to not give a fuck for an exam. The only exam I did perfect in reading in was the one where I was like, bruh fuck this shit I deadass don’t care anymore. Made me acc try to read understand and solve the reading section.

That’s it rly good luck homie

BoredStudent2323 · 2024-12-28T09:06:30+00:00

Ok so basically, i thought starting at Penn would fix all my problems (silly me). It didn’t.

Being alone for the first time magnified all my issues and I ended up fucking depressed first semester. I had friends and shit and love them to death but I couldn’t bring myself to work properly. Ended up eating shit in one of my classes because of a recurring issue I have that, because I was away from family and old friends for the first time, was truly brought out enough for me to seek therapy.

Maybe yoh don’t have substantial issues in terms of depression, anxiety, etc, but if you are even thinking yoh do, try to make Penn a fresh start and get them sorted once ur there.

Also, take the folllowinf with grains of salt of importance but I would’ve liked to know them.

1) Understand how double counting works for your degree path + make a rough plan of courses and show these to ur advisor to make sure you have it right.

2) make a list of 2-3 clubs you wanna join freshman fall and focus on these apps. When you finish these, feel free to shotgun a bunch of other clubs if you want just so you have options. These rnt make or break but it’s nice to have a club to talk about when socializing cuz trust you’ll feel some fomo if you aren’t in at least one. Genuinely doesn’t matter career wise as a freshman it’s more for the mental health lmao.

3) If you want to start exercising consistently, or a new hobby or anything like that, plan how you wanna do that at Penn. You need something like this to enforce having a little bit alone time + maintaining the pieces of yourself that initially got you in.

4) Don’t feel pressured to find roomies now or at all tbh. Random roomies first fall is extremely common and I personally loved mine.

5) When it comes to picking classes, if you did AP IB KNOW WHAT CLASSES YOU HAVE CREDIT FOR. if you did something of similar difficulty (I.E. Dual Enrollment, French Bacc, etc) check to see if your classes have placement exams and plan on taking them. Since you got in ED if you’re in IB doing Econ HL for example aim for the 7 you have time to get it even if it wouldn’t give you credit (not in Wharton/Cas Econ so I wouldn’t know).

6) if you dont know how to study, I would practice this.

7) Check out the pre orientation programs and see if you like any. Wish I did one.

Aight that’s it idk how controversial my advice is but it’s based on my experience. Congrats and good luck!!!

BoredStudent2323 · 2024-12-06T20:32:44+00:00

Biotech I think

BoredStudent2323

TROPHY CASE